“ There are five men in this country who have more money than that. John D. Rockefeller has $150,000,000; W.W. Astor, $140,000,000; Cornelius Vanderbilt, $90,000,000; William K. Vanderbilt about $80,000,000. All of them except Gould and Rockefeller inherited the bulk of their fortunes. The Vanderbilt family has probably as much money as Gould, yet he had more than any two members of it, and , what is more, he made it all himself. Some of the other wealthy people in this country are Collis P. Huntington, who is rated at $45,000,000 ”

“ His Career When Jay Gould began business in this city he possessed $750,000, but the path he trod to earn it was rough and stormy, and his capital varied at different times from five dollars to ten cents. He was born in Roxbury, Delaware county, N.Y., May 27, 1835, of parents who worked a small farm and were people of strong sense and sturdy integrity. Jay was kept on the farm until he was 12 years old, but his father found him of small account. ”

“ Young Gould now became a professional surveyor and civil engineer. He mapped Albany, Ulster, Greene and Delaware counties in New York, Lake and Geauga counties in Ohio, and Oakland county in Michigan; made the surveys for a plank road and a railroad, wrote and published a history of Delaware county, started a tannery, where he employed 250 men, built a town (Gouldsboro) and established a bank and carried it through the panic of 1857 before he was 21.
Gets Married He sold an interest in the town for $80,000 and invested the money in depreciated railroad securities after the panic. ”

“ In ten minutes the rate was 135 and with bewildered brains and pallid faces hundreds of ruined operators rushed into the darkness of their private offices to weep and wail over the wrecks of their fortunes. The ruin wrought by the speculation cannot be overestimated. ”

“ It was generally known that Gould was heavily involved in the smash of Grant and Ward, and he soon found arrayed against him every bear operator in the street. Before Mr. Gould extricated himself from his difficulties he sold out his entire holding of stock in the Mercantile Trust Company. From company after company Mr. Gould retired, and it was not until the summer of 1884 was well advanced that he rested easily and could look complacently on the market and call it his own. During the year more than forty railroads had passed into the hands of receivers, among them the New York and. ”

“ He is dead. Close of the Life of Jay Gould, the Great Financier. He Falls a Victim to Consumption. The End Came Peacefully. Sketch of His Career. New York, December 03, 1892. Jay Gould died at 9:15 o’clock a.m. The direct cause of Mr. Gould’s death, as stated at the house, was pulmonary consumption. The scene at the house at midnight was not extraordinary, as it was stated at that time that the strong master mind had ceased to battle for life. ”